To End All Wars- By Carol Ostling

Title/Year: To End all Wars/ 2001
Director/Birth Country/Year Born: David L. Cunningham /Switzerland/ Feb,24,1971
Budget: $14,000,000 (estimated)
Gross: N/A
Synopsis: Based on the auto biography of Ernest Gordon. Tells the tale of the men who worked on the “ Death Railroad”  and how they struggle with their own faith and forgiveness.   
Narrative and Visual Keywords: Forgiveness, self-sacrifice, Christian beliefs, Burma, “death railroad”, POW camp, Biography, Ernest Gordon, Jungle, Freedom, Escape, Bushido, Argyle Scotland, Second Chance, Thailand, Death, Beating, Mercy, Teacher
Characterization/ Dialogue: The main character Ernest goes through a time of loss of hope when he comes to face the fact that they should try and escape the camp. He finds in himself a sense of hope and that comes out through his teaching others. He comes to his own answers to questions about life and finds that forgiveness is powerful.
Camera/lighting/editing technique: Most of the movie had solid camera technique a variety of shots, MS,CU LS. I did notice that on some of the emotionally important moments when it was a CU the shot was soft, almost in a way that looked like I was watching a VHS from verrrry far away. Lighting is mostly outdoors. There was a few flashback/montage moments of an incident that just happened. There was even a sort of flash forward montage. There was also a lot of Voice Over narrative of Ernest speaking.   
 Political/ Social Commentary: The enemy isn’t always just the other guy trying to kill you. Sometimes the enemy is the hatred and bitterness that resides within peoples heart. There was a lot of cultural learning about the Budito and how they see the world. Even though there may be great cultural divides you can still be friends. 
Historical Relevance/ Recognition: This is based off of the Biography of Ernest Gordon. Ernest was in a POW camp that helped build the “Railroad of death”; the Railway spanned from Bangkok to Burma. Even though in the movie it looks like the camp can only hold a few hundred in actuality it was a few thousand. The Railroad of death was built forced laborers nearly 90,000 Asian laborers and 16,000 allied POWs died of the direct result of this railway.  This film is often called a Christian film because of its crucifixion scene and because of some of the references to the Bible. It is not a popular film, I believe it was released straight to VHS and has hardly been popular since its release.
Notable Collaboration: Ernest Gordon was at the end of the film much like a  Schindler’s list moment. Kiefer  Sutherland and Robert Carlyle both are actors in the film.   
Random fact, Etc. Most of the movie was filmed in Kauai, Hawai’i. The film was awarded the crystal Heart award and Grand prize for Dramatic Feature at the Heartland Film Festival.

P.O.V:  There were very few Point of View shots in this movie. When we did have a P.O.V there were at times of extreme emotion and were of the jungle. We see a P.O.V moment when Yanker(Kiefer Sutherland’s character) had sacrificed himself, his body to be beaten for the sake of saving the rest of the group. He looks up at the sky and we see the sky as him.

Identity: One of the biggest parts of the character arcs has to deal with the identity of the individual within the unit. We see Major Cambell’s ( Robert Carlyle) through out most of the movie deal with an identity crisis. His C.O is killed and Cambell feels the need for justice. As time grows justice becomes revenge till at the end he almost kills a fellow member of his unit. He looks at that moment and says what have I done? There is also a VO of Ernest that speaks about losing your soul and what does it take to lose your soul?

Morality: Morality is at the heart of this movie. Through out the whole movie Ernest is talking to you asking you to think and answer questions about human life, sacrifice and what it means to be a person. One of the most telling moments is when another Japanese camp is bombed and the wounded come to their fellow soldiers, Ernest's captors do not want to help. It is because it goes against the Bushido code of honor and shame. It is honor to die and shameful to live when you are weak, sort of way of life. Ernest does not see it this way and goes to help the wounded men. The captors run away and Major Cambell tries to talk Ernest out of helping them he calls the wounded men “the enemy”. Ernest responds back “Those are wounded, dying human beings; they are no harm to us”. This moment is the biggest wake up call of the movie, this is in fact human beings, not scum not japes, not nips, but HUMANs and that should be respected.   

Memory: The whole movie is a sort of memory seeing that is based on a biography. They also used a lot of actual photos in the movie which made me feel more connected to the real people.  However, there were a few moments were memory of what just happened worked in the movie. The most profound memory was when Ernest was remembering his home. Ernest was dying and all he could think about was home and the sea. When we saw these moments of memory there was a VO of Ernest talking about what death is, dark and cold and he was all alone. Yet in that moment his VO talked about wanting a second chance because he  had never really valued his life and what it might’ve been, until, he was almost dead.